doctor

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   children take the roles of physician or patient or nurse and pretend they are at the physician's office

   the children explored each other's bodies by playing the game of doctor

2. 2
   noun

   a licensed medical practitioner

   I felt so bad I went to see my doctor

3. 3
   noun

   a person who holds Ph.D. degree or the equivalent from an academic institution

   I am a doctor of philosophy in physics.

4. 4
   noun

   A physician; a member of the medical profession; one who is trained and licensed to heal the sick or injured. The final examination and qualification may award a doctor degree in which case the post-nominal letters are DO, DPM, MD, DMD, or DDS in the US, or MBBS or BDS in the UK.

   If you still feel unwell tomorrow, see your doctor.

5. 5
   noun

   A teacher; one skilled in a profession or a branch of knowledge; a learned man.

   So from that tyme forwarde I began to ſmell the word of god, and forſoke the ſchole doctors and ſuch foolries.

6. 6
   noun

   Any mechanical contrivance intended to remedy a difficulty or serve some purpose in an exigency.

   the doctor of a calico-printing machine, which is a knife to remove superfluous colouring matter

7. 7
   noun

   A witchdoctor.

   [T]he material operation is that the doctor would catch a certain species of lizard under particular circumstances at a particular time. He would croon over it the name of the man while gently rattling his ‘devil bones,’ thus calling up the evil spirit that follows these particular charmed bones.

8. 8
   noun

   A ship's cook.

   […] old Scotch Jem the boatswain, tunes his fiddle, and the doctor, (ship's cook,) produces his tambourine; the men dance on deck, […]

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *deḱ-der. Proto-Italic *dokeō Latin doceō Proto-Indo-European *-tōr Proto-Italic *-tōr Latin -tor Latin doctorbor. Old French doctur Anglo-Norman doctourder. Middle English doctour English doctor From Middle English doctor, doctour (“an expert, authority on a subject”), from Anglo-Norman doctour, from Latin doctor (“teacher”), from doceō (“to teach”). Displaced native Middle English lerare (“doctor, teacher”) (from Middle English leren (“to teach, instruct”) from Old English lǣran, lēran (“to teach, instruct, guide”), compare Old English lārēow (“teacher, mas…